1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of informing a user regarding a speed of a connection between a device and a host. More particularly, this invention relates to a method of visually displaying an indicator representing the connection speed of the device.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a USB device (such as a Mass Storage device) is plugged into a USB bus of a host computer, the host operating system (OS) enumerates the device and mounts it to a desktop of the OS. Each mounted device conventionally has a graphic icon associated with it that can be displayed on the desktop, such as in a desktop window. A display screen (such as a computer monitor) connected to the host computer displays the desktop to a user. Traditionally, it has been difficult (or impossible) for a user to determine what bus speed the USB device was enumerated at (e.g., low speed (LS), full speed (FS), or high speed (HS)). The differences in throughput between LS (1.5 Mbit/sec), FS (12 Mbit/sec), and HS (480 Mbit/sec) is significant.
FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a desktop window representing connected devices in a conventional manner. Referring to FIG. 1, a first icon 12 in an operating system desktop window 10 represents a removable disk drive. A second icon 14 represents a local hard drive. A third icon 16 represents a USB connected mass storage device. As shown in FIG. 1, when a USB device (such as a mass storage device) is enumerated in a traditional system, a graphic icon 16 representing the device is displayed on the desktop. The graphic icon is selected based solely on the type of device (e.g., a local drive, a removable drive, a CD-ROM drive, etc.). There has traditionally been no easy way to identify the speed at which a device has been enumerated.